The Words of the Silent
by Bittersweet Treats
Summary: Hearing is not always what it is made out to be. And sometimes, people just want to be ignorant of the world around them. Lance is one of those people. (Not finished, and probably will never be finished.)


Lance had never been able to hear. Nor was he able to speak.

He never knew what people said around him to each other, or about him to each other. He'd never learned to read lips, never had interest or patience enough to learn ASL or any other type of communication. Though, he did learn how to read and write.

Despite the fact that he could tell his family wanted, yearned for him to at least find some way to interact with them, he never did. He remained completely oblivious to the world around him.

Instead of learning to communicate with people, he learned how to read people. How to read situations and peoples actions. He communicated with the world in actions and comfort rather than words.

He became great at reading people. Could tell you someone's life story a few minutes after meeting someone and reading the way that they carried themselves. He understood people, and sometimes even animals, through touch and sight.

He could tell that Hunk had flunked the test in Physics the moment he set his eyes on his friend and was by the Samoans side before the man could even blink.

Lance knew that Pidge missed someone the moment he laid his eyes on her when they were paired together for a project in English.

And He knew that Keith and Shiro loved each other dearly, as a family, when he saw the way they interacted after Keith took a punch for him from a bully.

Lance was what most people would call a goody-two-shoes. He never did anything bad, and it was because he didn't see any value in breaking the rules. They were rules for a reason. People put them into place to make sure that others were safe.

His good grades bumped him up a grade level in school and sent him to a prestigious school in America, despite the fact that he had asked his mother, through a painstakingly long letter after she wrote one to him, that he wanted to remain in the crappy public school that he'd been going to since Kindergarten.

So when he was on a plane to Altea Private School in Gibsonton Florida, he was noticeably unhappy. He let his actions tell his family this, by ignoring the letters that they tried to give to him in hopes that he would 'talk' to them. He refused to meet any of their gazes when they tried to get his attention. When his family gathered around him in a group hug, he kept his arms by his sides and refused to acknowledge that they were trying to show him affection.

Of course, he felt guilty about this only after he was on the plane to Orlando where he would be picked up and carted to Gibsonton. He knew that his family was only trying their best, and they wanted him to make more friends than the one or two people he hung out with while at school. He also knew that what they did was a price to pay for refusing to 'hear' them.

The plane ride was long, just over seven hours to get where he was going, but Lance attributed that to the fact that they had to touch down and switch planes when they got to Colorado. His father had decided to tag along, mostly due to Lance's disability, but also because he wanted to be there when he watched his son go off with the family he would be staying with while in America.

They got to Orlando alright, and Lance quickly waved to his father as he went off with Mrs. Radriguez. His father pursed his lips but returned the wave, and Lance was off. He sat in the back seat of the car and waited for Mrs. Radriguez to get in. Before the familiar purr of the car started, she turned to him and smiled. Then she took a note from her purse and handed it to Lance. It was a letter explaining everything that she expected of Lance while he stayed with her, as well as rules for the house and the names of the rest of her family.

They were off after he wrote a small note to her saying he understood and accepted.

Altea was a gigantic school and had the largest population of students from around the world. Lance was not the only student from another country that would attend the school, though he was the only one from Cuba.

It was separated into three main buildings. The main campus, which was where all of the classes from Freshman in high school to Senior in College. The main cafeteria was located here as well as a Starbucks, which Lance was surprised to see when he was being toured around with Allura, the student council president.

The second building was more of a sports building than anything. Three gyms, a football field, a baseball field, two Olympic sized pools, one recreational pool with a hot tub, and a weight training room. Lance had a feeling he would never if rarely visit this facility. He wasn't one who was interesting in sports, and he swam very little despite his home being located on a beach.

The third building was a dorm building paired with a study hall and library. Lance was staying with the Rodriguez's which meant that he wouldn't be using the dorms. His family and the council, when making the plans for his transfer had decided it would be easier than if Lance was stuck with a complete stranger his age.

Lance didn't want to be here, so he could have cared less.

After the official tour, Allura led him to the main office to finish up some paperwork and get a translator that would help Lance when he was in class.

The translator was a man named Shiro. He was in his sixth year at Altea and was studying to be an English teacher for non-English speaking people. Lance shook his hand and tilted his head to the side as he watched Shiro talk with the principal, a nice man names Alfor.

Shiro carried himself in a way that leads Lance to believe he was holding a lot of his pain in. His shoulders, though relaxed, looked like they were forced that way. His eyes were a deep brown, but they looked heavy with sadness, and the way he shifted every now and then pointed out to Lance that he wasn't exactly comfortable in his skin.

Of course, he didn't say anything, as it wasn't his place or his problem.

Shiro wrote some stuff down on a sheet and handed it to Lance who quickly read it.

_I don't know if you would be willing to, but I would suggest learning ASL to make it easier to talk to each other. It would also make it easier for me to translate what is being said in class faster than typing or writing._

Lance pursed his lips. There was a reason that he didn't want to learn sign language, but Shiro had a point. It wasn't practical to have the man type or write everything out just because he wanted to enjoy the silence of the world a little longer. He looked over at the man, who was smiled kindly at him and nodded. Shiro's smiled got even brighter and he quickly went to write something more.

_Thank you._

Lance merely grimaced at the sheet of paper and let himself be led out of the office and down the hall.

It was nearly three months later, and Lance was fluent in ASL when he met Keith.

Keith was Shiro's-brother. They had the same father, but different mother's. He could tell from a single glance at Keith that he was in pain. Not physical pain, but an emotional turmoil that was dug so deep into the boy that Lance knew it would never disappear, no matter how hard someone tried.

He could tell Keith was quieter than most people. Lance could also tell that he had a hard time expressing himself, which probably made the emotional pain worse, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Shiro was quick to introduce him signing quickly to Lance, the information. Keith's eyes met Lances and Lance quickly signed back.

'He looks constipated.'

Shiro stuttered his translation to Keith and let his jaw drop at Lances words.

This was how Lance's relationship with Keith started. From that point on, he could tell Keith did nothing but insult him, even if he couldn't hear the words.

It was in the way that Shiro always seemed to hesitate when signing what Keith said to Lance and Keith's overall posture when he was around Lance. Maybe it was also because Keith glared at him more than once from then on out.

It was also during this time that he was paired with Pidge, a small brown-haired girl from his English class, on a project. The project was to read and analyze one of Shakespeare's plays, **Hamlet.**

Pidge, overall, seemed nice. She did her half of the work and left Lance alone to do his half of the work. The only reason that Lance wasn't paired with Shiro for this project like he would have in any other class, regardless of if Shiro was actually enrolled in the class or not, was because this was the only class Shiro didn't translate for. Lance didn't think he needed a translator for a class-based purely off of writing.

So, Lance worked with Pidge. He never mentioned the way that she hunched over her work and drowned herself in it to appease the obvious hole left there from some sort of loss. Nor did he mention when she slacked off and instead fiddled with her laptop while they were working in Study Hall because she was trying to force back tears.

Again, this wasn't his place. Plus, Pidge wouldn't understand him as she didn't know ASL.

So Lance participated in class. He did his share of work, and avoided Keith at all costs, not wanting to make his relationship with the boy any worse than it already was.

It was a month later that Lance ran into Hunk, quite literally.

Hunk had been in a rush to get something turned into a class on time, and had flown around a corner that Lance was just coming to as well. They collided and the plate with the homework assignment on it shatter against the floor, throwing food everywhere.

The Samoan boy quickly abandoned his shattered plate and food to make sure that Lance was ok. Lance was. He would just be sporting a bruise on his hip for a while, but otherwise, he was fine.

When Hunk was sure that Lance was ok, he went back to fussing over his homework assignment. Lance used this time to study the boy.

Hunks shoulders were wound tight, and his movements were jerky and nervous, pointing towards Anxiety. The other boy's face was pinched tight, and his hands were beginning to shake, prompting Lance to think he was near either an Anxiety attack or a Panic attack, heavily leaning towards panic.

He moved forwards and got Hunks attention. He sighed, asking if Hunk understood ASL, to which the boy nodded. He then asked if it was ok for him to touch the other boy. Hunk nodded to that as well, and Lance was wrapping his arms around the Samoan boy in a hug. Hunk squeezed him back, obviously appreciative of Lance's actions.

The boy quickly broke down and sobbed into Lance's shoulder. Lance held still and let him do it, there was no fuss about it.

It was a few moments before the large boy pulled away from Lance with a sheepish face. He freed his hands and began to sign.

'Sorry. I didn't mean to break down like that. Hope I didn't waste your time.'

Lance shook his head, 'Wasn't busy. Glad I could help.'

The Samoan boy smiled brightly at Lance, total opposition to moments before when he had been sobbing.

'Name's Hunk. You free after school? I want to repay you for helping.''

Lance thought for a moment. Usually, he would go home and work on homework before Mrs. Radriguez waved him down for dinner. He would have to coordinate with her on the subject, but thought that it might be nice to get out of the house.

'Lance...I'm free. What were you thinking?'

'Meet at the flagpole at the front of the school. We'll talk then.'

The Cuban boy nodded, waving the boy off.

After that, he continued to his class and told Shiro what happened. Shiro relayed that to the teacher.

XxXxXxXxX

Hunk was sitting at the flagpole just as he said when Lance finally got out of class. He perked up when he saw Lance approaching.

'Hey. I thought we could go to the cafe. I would pay for anything you wanted.' He quickly signed, his mouth moving along with the movements as if he was double-checking himself.

Lance nodded to him, 'Sounds good.'

The two of them walked off campus together, Hunk guiding Lance to the chosen cafe. The deaf boy had texted his guardian earlier that day to double-check that it was ok that he went with the boy. She had said yes as long as he was home before ten.

As they walked, Lance looked around the city. It was busy and crowded. Nothing like the small town he had grown up in. Large buildings that tower over the earth like giant metal skeletons that erupted from man's need to be grand, roads made of tarmac with hundreds of metal beasts thundered down the roads, human passengers in a rush to get somewhere.

He didn't like it. It was too different. Too crowded.

His town was small, the population a total of a thousand people. There was one paved road in the entire town, and it leads to the boarders. And the others were all dirt, used exclusively by bikes, horses, or feet. The tallest building was the church. And the building with the most floors was the school, which had three.

Lance was drawn from his thoughts by Hunk tapping his shoulder. The boy was smiling at him and nodded towards a door.

They walked through the doors into the cafe. It was small, only four tables in total. The smell of coffee and baked goods filled the air. Light pink curtains hung from the windows where words were written in Liquid Marker. The floor was a pattern of baby blue and rose pink. At the very back of the main room was a counter. It was painted yellow.

A woman with dark skin was sitting behind it reading a book. She had glasses on her face and her long black hair was tied back into a ponytail. She looked up when Hunk and Lance entered, a soft smile that mirrored Hunk greeted them. Her mouth moved in what was most likely a greeting.

Lance continued to look around the cafe while Hunk and the woman talked.

The tables were plastic and cemented into the floor. Each one was covered in a lacy white table cloth with a flower-filled vase. The chairs were also plastic, white and with intricate designs. Only one table had someone sitting at it.

He was working on his computer with a cup and plate. He also had glasses.

A tap on his shoulder made Lance look at Hunk.

'What do you want?'

Lance looked at the woman who was standing at the computer and staring at him. He looked back to Hunk and quickly signed, 'Just tea, any kind. And a cookie.'

Hunk nodded, looking back at the woman who typed it into the computer.

She took her hands away from the screen to move them.

'Would you like a menu of our teas. We have a lot. And chocolate chip or oatmeal.'

Lance blinked. He hadn't expected her to know sign language. Most restaurant workers did not, or only knew very limited sign language.

'No. I just want green tea. And surprise me.'

She nodded, 'Ok.'

He looked at Hunk, who smiled in return and gestured to the three unoccupied tables. It was a clear sign asking where he wanted to sit. Lance made his way to the table furthest from the door. Hunk followed close behind. They sat down, relaxing.

'So, how did you get into Altea?' Hunk signed slowly.

Lance considered this for a moment before moving his hands.

'I got a scholarship.'

Hunk nodded, 'My mom enrolled me because they thought it would be best if I went to this school.'

Lance nodded at that. He looked out the window again to watch the passersby. Hunk allowed him to do so, instead of standing to talk to the barista at the counter.

He returned with the girl who sported a serving platter. A smoothie, a cup of steaming tea, a muffin and a cookie. Hunk sat down as she placed the beverages on the table.

The nodded to them and signed, 'Enjoy.'

Hunk immediately took a sip from the smoothie and sighed. His tightly-wound shoulders relaxed and he leaned back in his seat. Lance smiled at him and nibbled at the cookie. It was a chocolate chip, fresh from the cooling wrack. He could tell because it was soft on the inside and still warm.

'Do you like the tea? They brew it with homegrown tea leaves.' The Samoans face had a relaxed smile on it, and the honesty in his eyes surprised Lance.

He nodded slowly to the darker-skinned boy, 'It tastes wonderful. I see you enjoy the smoothie!'

Hunk blushed at the comment, ducking his head down to stare at the table. He thought for a moment before looking back up to answer Lance.

'Yeah. It reminds me of my grandmother's smoothies. She made hers with fresh fruits picked directly from the trees. That's back when I lived with her in New Zealand. It was nice.'

The boy started to ramble and it was all Lance could do to keep up with the story. He watched the rapid sloppy hand movements and facial expressions clumsily flow. The other boy was going on about how life was when he lived with his grandmother. The things that she taught him and the foods she made. He told Lance that she was the one to get him into the culinary arts.

Lance nodded along, sometimes having no clue what the Samoan boy meant, but going along with it anyways. Mostly because it made Hunk smile. He obviously loved to talk about his grandmother.

'Oh! Sorry. I've been rambling. You probably don't care!' Hunk began with flustered movements and a red face. The Cuban shook his head and grabbed Hunk's hands so the other would stop blabbering on.

When he was sure that Hunk was paying attention to him, he pulled his hands away and smiled.

'It's nice to just watch your stories. They are interesting, and I want to know more about you. The only thing you should do differently is slow down and make sure you are making coherent movements. Sometimes it's hard to understand what you are saying.'

Hunk nodded at those words, the blush on his face slowly fading to a happy smile, 'Of course.'

They lapsed into a moment of stillness. Then Hunk moved again.

'Do you want to be friends?'

Lance was taken aback by the question from Hunk.

Where he lived in Cuba was a small town. He didn't have friends, opting instead to have time to himself. Plus, he hadn't bothered to learn any form of communication, so that widened the gap between him and the others. And when he'd come to Altea, the only person he openly conversed with was Shiro. He'd insulted Keith within the first minute of talking with him, he never talked to Pidge, even when they had group assignments. Hunk was the first person other than Shiro he'd made voluntary contact with.

He stared at Hunk for a few more seconds, the Samoan raising his hands to his face to check for something that wasn't there.

Lance waved his hands rapidly to tell Hunk to stop. He nodded, and it Hunks confused expression, Lance began to sign.

'I do want to be friends.'

Hunk smiled, and surprisingly, Lance returned it. In fact, the smile that split his face almost hurt. He'd never smiled this happily. It was strange.

XxXxXxXxX

Lunch the next day was abnormal.

Lance had never really sat with anyone at lunch. Shiro opted to take a break in the teacher's lounge or wherever he disappeared off to when Lance wasn't in class. And he never had friends to sit with, so it was strange when he walked into the cafeteria to get his lunch when Hunk waved at him from a table full of people.

He recognized some of them. Keith slumped over his plate with a pissed off look to his shoulders from where he sat across from Hunk. Pidge who was chattering away with a boy who sat in a wheelchair sat next to the Samoan boy, but closer to the edge of the table. The school student president, Allura, who he had met when he was first signing in to the school across from Pidge listening to one of the conversations that were going on.

There were a few other students as well.

A man who looked almost identical to Allura sat next to the young woman. He had long silver hair that was tied down his back in a brad. His skin was smooth in a way that sparked jealousy in Lance. His nose was sharp and regal like he was royalty, and his eyes were a lighter shade of magenta than Keith's.

A girl who had short chocolate brown hair sat on the other side of Hunk. Her eyes were an almost rusted gold color, it gold could rust. Her skin was a dark shade of brown that matched her earthy colored blouse. There was a light natural blush on her cheeks.

The boy in the wheelchair had the same features as Pidge. His hair was the same soft blond and his eyes the soft amber. His cheeks had the same babyish plumpness. There was a ragged scar on his cheek that was really the only difference. His torso and legs were covered in a thick blanket so there wasn't much else to see.

There were four other girls as well, taking up the spaces next to the silver-haired boy and the dark-skinned girl.

The tallest was buff. She had long thick brown hair with purple highlights at the ends and sharp slanted eyes that were a brown so dark it was almost black.

Another one was lanky, much like Lance. Her hair was tied back into a ponytail, but like the other girl was dyed, but it had pink instead of purple. Her eyes were a very pale blue.

The next tallest was wearing a beanie over long naturally black hair. She had glasses on her face, but they were black so they blocked her eyes from another view. That meant they were either sunglasses, or she was blind.

The last girl had the same purple hair in a bun with hair clips holding her bangs back. Her eyes were a bluish purplish.

Each girl was wearing a school track jacket and some sort of yoga pants.

He slowly approached the table, eyes tracing over each person warily. Quickly taking the only unoccupied seat next to Allura and the boy in the wheelchair, Lance focused his eyes on the food in front of him.

Breathing slowly, but in a way that if anyone was watching him they would never be able to tell he was taking a breath, he looked up at Hunk. The boy was smiling widely at Pidge, his mouth moving with words that Lance couldn't hear.

The young human was looking at Lance with confusion. That gaze was matched with a twin from the boy in the wheelchair and Allura. The dark-skinned girl next to Hunk smiled around the spoon in her mouth when Lance made eye contact with her. The silver-haired boy, the track girls, and Keith all ignored him. That or they hadn't noticed him yet.

Hunk waved his hands to get Lance's attention. He began to sign swiftly if a bit sloppily.

'So, I wanted to introduce you to my other friends. They're really nice! This is Pidge, they' re-'

Lance cut the boy off, 'I work with them in English. I know who they are.'

'Ok. So, the boy next to her is her brother Matt. This,' he took a second to point at the brown-haired girl sitting next to him, 'Is Shay. She's my girlfriend. The girl sitting next to you is Allura, the boy next to her is her cousin, Lotor. The rest of the girls are Lotor's friends. I don't know them all that well, but their names are Zethrid, Ezor, Narti, and Acxa. You already know Keith, right?'

'Yes.'

Hunk was momentarily distracted by Matt, who spoke for a moment. Lance watched his lips move, but couldn't understand a word that came out of his mouth. Hunk explained something, gesturing to Lance. When he saw the boy tilt his head, Hunk added movement to his words.

In short, he was explaining that Lance was deaf and that he was signing to him their names.

'He might be hanging out with us from now on.'

Matt tilted his head and waved a hand in greeting. Lance nodded back. A touch on his shoulder brought his attention to Allura. Her pinkish-blue eyes focused on him, narrowing. She began to sign, but it was hard to understand. Her movements were off, and the word she was creating didn't make sense if they were put into a sentence.

Lance tilted his head and then shook it. He signed slowly back to her, not sure if she would even understand him.

Allura blinked and looked to Hunk for an answer. He responded, an amused smile on his face.

'He doesn't understand what you are trying to say.'

The white-haired girl's brow furrowed and she frowned. Speaking quickly, she turned back to Lance and bowed her head.

'She says she's sorry. She learned the basics of sign when she was younger, but she does not remember all of it. She didn't mean to confuse you.'

'It's fine.'

Lance reached down and grabbed the sandwich to take a bite.

* * *

**Well, I completely forgot what I was going to write for the rest of this. I had a plan all set to go, was halfway through and then I forgot what I was trying to convey. I might come back and finish this when I remember, but until then, enjoy.**


End file.
